


Forever And (Two) A Day

by QueenOfNewOrleans22



Category: Bon Jovi (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28382313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfNewOrleans22/pseuds/QueenOfNewOrleans22
Summary: A simple slip-up can cost people a lot.(Richie kisses Jon on stage. It doesn't end well.)(Or maybe it does.)
Relationships: Jon Bon Jovi/Richie Sambora
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	Forever And (Two) A Day

Richie, drunk off his ass and grinning like the canary who'd gotten the cream, wrapped his arm around Jon's shoulders, pulled him closer, and planted a kiss on his lips. 

The crowd fell silent. 

_"We cannot tell anybody." Jon hissed, his eyes like dying embers in the remaining light from the sun. "It's our secret, okay?"_

_"Okay." Richie nodded, thinking about it, mulling it over. "I think that's fair."_

Jon digs his hands into the roots of his hair and pulls and pulls, trying to feel anything other than the explosion of humiliation and terror that's coursing through his body. "Oh my God. Oh my fucking God." Jon keeps repeating, and his eyes are wide, breathe beginning to hitch in his chest. "Oh fuck. Oh fuck." 

David, who feels awkward but isn't about to just stand idle, walks over. "Don't do that." He says instead of a placation, which would've just made things worse instead of better. David grabs Jon's wrists and pulls them, until Jon lets go of the tangled clumps of hair. "You can't do that." David says. 

"The crowd, what did they look like?" Jon asks. 

"What?" David stares, keeping tight on his friend's wrists so that he doesn't start pulling his hair again. "What do you mean? I wasn't looking at them." 

Except he had been, and they'd looked a terrible combination of terrified and angry. 

_Jon paused, and he almost seems to deflate, like a balloon who'd been let loose of his air. "And I don't want you to think that I'm ashamed, or whatever, but this - this needs to stay between us." He motions around vaguely._

_On the other bed, Richie grinned, so wide that it must've hurt. "If you were ashamed of me, you wouldn't tell Bach that you've got the best guitarist in the world, now, would ya?"_

_Staring at Richie with a bemused expression, Jon shrugs. "I guess not."_

Richie sits down on the worn couch, unable to keep standing up for fear of falling down. His eyes are wide, heart pounding in his chest like a jackhammer. "Please tell me that I didn't say anything." He says, with the slightest amount of desperation creeping into his voice. 

"You don't remember?" Tico replies, arms crossed, almost defensively. 

"I don't remember anything before Jon stormed off stage." Richie answers, refusing to meet anybody's eyes, too afraid, too remorseful. 

Tico purses his lips, unsure of what to say, unsure if there was anything that could be said. "Well, no." He finally answers. "You just grabbed him and, um, yeah." He vaguely imitates such an action but abandons it, staring at a wall because he couldn't look Richie in the eyes anymore without wondering about do many things. 

Richie lets out a faint moan, and buries his face in his hands. 

_"When I was a kid, like, a teenager, a gay kid and his 'friend' were beaten up and their families had to split 'em up and move 'em out of town." Jon said._

_"That's dumb." Richie replied, for lack of a better word. "Do you know what happened to them?" He asked._

_Jon paused as he stabbed at a limp piece of egg. "One of them committed suicide."_

_"Oh." Richie felt at a loss of good words._

_"He said in the suicide note that he couldn't live without his love." Jon finally managed to get the egg and stuck it in his mouth. "And the other one went to jail for attempted murder because he went and tried to kill the kid that ragged on him a few years back."_

_Richie stared at a wall for a minute, chewing on the last bit of his sausage, and then he shook his head. "See, why so you gotta tell me shit like that? Because now I'm mad and wanna punch something." He paused. "Or somebody."_

_"Because, not all stories have happy endings." Jon said solemnly. "And ours might not, either."_

Alec appears, looking bedraggled and exhausted. "Doc isn't dropping us, so thank whatever God you people believe in." He says, shutting the door behind him as he walks into the room. 

"But - ?" Tico prompts, feeling his heart begin to beat again. 

On the couch, Richie looks up from his hands. "Please don't tell me." He says, as the ideas of what might've happened begin to take form. Richie stands up and walks over, grabbing Alec by his shoulders. "Please, please, _please,_ don't tell me he left." 

Alecs looks at Tico, silently begging for help, and then turns back to the man who has him by the shoulders in an iron grip. "Security hasn't seen him." Alec answers after a moment of trepidation. 

Feeling close to passing out, Richie shuts his eyes, and leaned down toward the floor, still holding onto Alec. "This is my fucking fault." He mumbles. 

"No. Don't be like that." Tico isn't good at comforting, so he just weakly pats the guitarist on the back and hopes for the best. "It'll turn out fine." 

"They haven't seen David, either." Alec hurriedly says. "So they must be together, right?" 

"No." Richie shakes his head and slowly backs away. "No, he left. David probably went to go tell him to stay. Or maybe he left, too. I don't know - fuck!" He kicks at a table and sends several items flying through the air like violent projectiles. 

"Shit." Alec looks helpless. "They're probably in the bathroom or something. You know how Jon is, he just needs a minute, and David is his best friend. Neither of them would leave." 

" _If they found out, I'd run." Jon said, voice soft. "I'd run far far away, until nobody could recognize me." He grabs compulsively onto the closest thing near his hands, which ends up being Richie's shirt._

_"I would follow you " Richie took Jon's hand within his own. "We could become hermits together. You and me." He smiled._

_Jon laughed. "The Jersey hermits." He said._

"I'm scared. I don't know - they just - " Jon feels like he's about to vomit, and actually just might. "Why - " He coughs, twisting his head away.

David flinches. "Maybe they'll think it was some joke. Or that Richie was drunk and got a little too affectionate. You guys are affectionate all the time on stage, nobody will think a thing about it." He feels at a loss, and doesn't dare mention the fact that management might drop them. 

Leaning over until his hands are on his knees, Jon shuts his eyes tight. "Why would he do that?" He whispers, and thinks about how he'd told Richie, all those nights ago, about what had happened to those two boys. "What if they come after us - the fucking - fags - they'll - " 

"Okay, stop." David wonders if Tico will come looking for them. He hopes so, because this is beyond his comfort zone. "Just breathe. We'll figure it out." In spite of this, he isn't about to let his friend down when he's needed the most, and all he can do is rub Jon's back and pray that it's all some dream. 

"No, we won't." Jon says with what sounds suspiciously like a sob. "It's all ruined, and now I don't even have Richie." 

David frowns. "Yes, you will." He replies, but Jon shakes his head, and there's nothing more than can be said as he starts sobbing and David glances at the door, wondering what he was supposed to do. 

_"We promised forever, right?" Richie whispered._

_Jon smiled. "And a day."_

Somebody twists the handle on the door, and then knocks on it. "David. It's Alec, let me in." 

Jon tenses, but doesn't stop David when he moves away and unlocks the door, opening it, and Alec steps in. "Richie wants to talk to Jon." He says, as if that explains everything, when it barely begins to scratch the surface. "Teek wants us to go back to the hotel." 

"Really?" David feels like there's a puzzle piece missing, but Alec nods and makes a face, so he doesn't argue. "Okay, Jon, I'll be at the hotel if you need me, yeah?" 

Alec smiles at Jon when the blonde looks up from his knees to stare at them but then pushes David out the door. A minute later, Richie walks in, awkward and with not the slightest clue as to what he was supposed to be doing. "Hey." He says quietly as the door shut behind him. 

Jon takes in a shuddering breathe and then stands up straight. "Hi." 

Looking around the bathroom, Richie rubs his hands together and then places them across his chest. He has a million things to say, but not a single one would sound right. The fact that he had actually done what he'd did was still not fully understood, but Richie knew that their lives were hanging precariously in the balance, threatening to fall and break, like a fragile glass vase.

"Are you okay?" Richie asks. 

Jon smiles but it doesn't reach his eyes. "No." He replies. "You?" 

Richie shakes his head and sighs, feeling like the whole world was on his shoulders. Just an hour ago, he had been on top of the world, but now it was all falling apart. "I was drunk. I'm sorry." He finally says, feeling ashamed, like he was a child again with his hand caught inside of the cookie jar. "I just felt so happy, and when I'm happy, I kiss - I kiss you." Richie splays his hands and looks down at them. "Which was obviously the worst thing to do." 

"Obviously." Jon repeats, and then the mask on his face breaks, and he starts to crumble. "What are we gonna do? Two thousand people watched us kiss! _Kiss!_ I can't - they think - _no, know,_ that we're - " He frantically motions between them. 

"Maybe we can pass it off." Richie says. "Maybe they'll think that I was just being a drunk idiot." 

Jon makes a high-pitched noise from back in his throat and begins to pull at his hair again. "What am I gonna tell my parents? What are _you_ gonna tell _your_ parents?" He begins to pace, but Richie stops and grabs him by the arms halfway. 

"I don't care, okay? Remember what we were talking about before? What _they_ think doesn't matter, and we shouldn't give a damn about it. I love my parents and I know that you do, too, but we deserve to be together." 

"This has to be a dream." Jon looks away, biting his bottom lip, tugging on it. "I don't want to lose you." 

Richie softens. "I don't want to lose you, either." He says, and he reaches out, and, just like they always do, they come together.

Jon rests his chin on Richie's shoulder. "Doc is gonna be so pissed." 

"Fuck him." Richie says without thinking. "What are we gonna tell everybody else?"

"I don't know." Jon takes a deep breathe, and he straightens up to put his hands on either side of Richie's face. "But forever and a day, right?" 

Richie looks at him, and then he smiles, wrapping his arms around Jon just a little tighter, as if to hold him against the incoming storm. "Forever and _two_ days." 

_"But we'll always be together." Richie said in a confident voice._

_Jon smiled, reaching out and pulling Richie in for a kiss. "Of course."_


End file.
